The Sharp-tailed Snake Recovery Team for the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Environment and Climate Change Canada have prepared a recovery strategy for the Sharp-tailed Snake. It is open for public comment until May 2, 2017.
To view the proposed recovery strategy and submit comments please visit https://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/document/default_e.cfm?documentID=3127.
Pemberton/Area C of the SLRD is one of only 13 known locations of sharp-tailed snakes, and it is the only known population on the mainland of British Columbia. It is critical habitat for the population.
The snakes are important in the food web both as predators of slugs and other invertebrates and as prey for various vertebrates. They are thought to be beneficial to humans as they feed mainly on slugs, including introduced garden pests.
Residential and commercial development is deemed to be the main threat to the Sharp-tailed Snake.
The goal of the proposed recovery strategy is to ensure that Sharp-tailed Snake populations are stable or increasing in abundance and are well distributed across the species’ natural range in Canada.
The Province prepares recovery documents to ensure coordinated conservation actions and to meet its commitments to recover species at risk under the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk in Canada and the Canada–British Columbia Agreement on Species at Risk.
What is recovery?
Species at risk recovery is the process by which the decline of an endangered, threatened, or extirpated species is arrested or reversed, and threats are removed or reduced to improve the likelihood of a species’ persistence in the wild.
What is a provincial recovery document?
Recovery documents summarize the best available scientific and traditional information of a species or ecosystem to identify goals, objectives, and strategic approaches that provide a coordinated direction for recovery. These documents outline what is and what is not known about a species or ecosystem, identify threats to the species or ecosystem, and explain what should be done to mitigate those threats, as well as provide information on habitat needed for survival and recovery of the species. This information may be summarized in a recovery strategy followed by one or more action plans. The purpose of an action plan is to offer more detailed information to guide implementation of the recovery of a species or ecosystem. When sufficient information to guide implementation can be included from the onset, all of the information is presented together in a recovery plan. Information in provincial recovery documents may be adopted by Environment Canada for inclusion in federal recovery documents that the federal agencies prepare to meet their commitments to recover species at risk under the Species at Risk Act.
What’s next?
The Province of British Columbia accepts the information in these documents as advice to inform implementation of recovery measures, including decisions regarding measures to protect habitat for the species.
There are now management, recovery or action plans for over 200 B.C. species at risk.
All British Columbians are encouraged to participate in these efforts.
How to comment:
To view the recovery strategy or submit a comment via email, go to https://www.registrelep-sararegistry.gc.ca/document/default_e.cfm?documentID=3127